David Stafford's Blog (201)

The Cheryl Penn Dilemma

The Cheryl Penn Dilemma What are we to do with Cheryl Penn? Her art, always masterful, always protean (look it up, I did) always dreamlike in its complexity or complex in its dreamworld evocations. Shifting beneath your feet as you reach out to its varied meanings and tangled up in the dreamworlds of others, mingling at some height high above the earth. The Penn-o-sphere. The air up there is rarified (Esoterically distant from the lives and concerns of ordinary people) but not hard…

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Added by David Stafford on April 22, 2012 at 6:29pm — 16 Comments

Stephanie Blake's Whirligig Mug Shot

Thanks to Nancy Bell Scott or whoever coined the term Blogjam. It’s the perfect word for my current affliction. Apologies to all whose mail art has been languishing near my scanner. Let me begin with Stephanie Blake’s Whirligig Mugshot which amazed both of us by arriving without a scratch. Not even a torn edge.

 

 I know many of you will be tempted to try…

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Added by David Stafford on April 21, 2012 at 5:57pm — 13 Comments

The Orchard Beach Codex

Some of you may remember the Orchard Beach Codex. For those who don't a quick recap. The OBC, so-called because it washed ashore in Old Orchard Beach, Maine in 1947, is an obscure collection of medieval documents cobbled together some around the turn of one of the centuries. At one time, many scholars say, the OBC was over 6,000 pages long, its pages consisting of a compendium Bible quotes, language primers, advice for the lovelorn and recipes for kippered snacks. Over time the OBC was…

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Added by David Stafford on March 17, 2012 at 10:57pm — 19 Comments

The Caption and Tenniel

This just in! The latest boekie (Sp?) from Skybridge Studios: A solid gold hit! An artifact from the Summer of Love (sorry, you missed it, kids), An accordion mash up that bestrides several worlds all at once including but not limited to: Jefferson Airplane, Grace Slick, Alice in Wonderland, Recreation drugs and Froggie Went a Courtin'. I have thrown Zeus into the mix because he just hates, hates, hates to be left out. …

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Added by David Stafford on February 25, 2012 at 11:39pm — 4 Comments

Katerina, Tictac and Kerri

Another triple header this week starting with a lovely Valentine from Katerina Nikoltsou....I think this reads Love Again but it could be a Greek word as well. I wish I'd had the time to send out Valentine's this year....maybe next year...Thank you, Katerina...Hope all's well in turbulent Greece.

 Next up: Big Hair from Starnberg...the fabulous Mona Lisa Winehouse from…

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Added by David Stafford on February 18, 2012 at 8:54pm — 7 Comments

Lesley, Svenja & Skybridge

It's been a good week on Alamo Drive for mail art. First up: Lesley Magwood Fraser's strange creature.

 It could be a turtle or an echidna or a spina bifida. We just don't know. However, scientists at Bell Labs suggested that colorization may help identify this little guy.…

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Added by David Stafford on February 9, 2012 at 3:38pm — 5 Comments

Aladdin Sane aka Dean Marks

I received this yesterday from Dean Marks, the King of Bar Code Art....Though at this point he's probably more like the Emperor or the High Priest or even the God of Bar Code Art. He has taken it beyond the beyond. Check it out.

 

Now I have to admit the first thing that I thought of was not bar code. I don't think the two dimensional scan can convey the tactile…

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Added by David Stafford on January 27, 2012 at 1:34am — 7 Comments

Recent Arrivals

Four cool pieces from around the globe. First off a zen cookie from Mim in Virginia with a sort of blackboard effect. Unfortunately I had to drop out of my Asemic Writing class at the community college so I can’t quite decipher the writing and it may not be writing at all. It could be a bat hurtling through space having lost its radar in the stratosphere. But there is definitely a cookie in there. Thank you, Mim.…

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Added by David Stafford on December 31, 2011 at 11:01pm — 10 Comments

Nancy Bell Scott's Bits

 

Christmas arrived early this week in the form of a brown paper package not tied up with string but it certainly contained a few of Nancy Bell Scott’s favorite things. 38 of them, in fact. All carefully annotated and laid out like specimens from a Library of Congress collection. There are bits of string, rust, a rock from Mexico and Nancy’s drugs of choice:…

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Added by David Stafford on December 18, 2011 at 1:21am — 14 Comments

Cheryl Penn's Ghostworld

We were sitting around the enormous hearth at Klavworster’s Grotto when the subject of ghosts came up. “Africa is filled with ghosts,” old De Toit said. He closed his eyes and we watched as he conjured the spirits he spoke of. I closed mine too and felt the racing of the dead, human and animal, across a cave painting, the endless hunt, frozen in time. We were all…

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Added by David Stafford on November 24, 2011 at 5:40pm — 12 Comments

High Marks for Dean

Dean Marks, merry prankster in Paris, sent me this gargantuan card. The scans do not convey its heft, supplied by a piece of plexiglas from a fallen traffic signal. In other words, industrial strength trashpo or Traffic Light from the City of Lights (they can spare one). Featured on the front is another of Dean's barcode creations to which he has affixed my head. Aside from aiding and abetting my cult, the entire thing resembles a costume drawing for an Ubu Roi update. The barcode booties…

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Added by David Stafford on November 14, 2011 at 4:26pm — 6 Comments

FULL FRONTAL NUDITY FROM KDJ

It's not often we receive full frontal nudity in our mailbox here on Alamo Drive. Especially when it concerns the mail of the species. But KDJ goes boldly where others fear to tread and besides she's merely recording an actual historical event: The Day Johnny Walker Left His Pants at Home. Much like Lady Godiva's famous ride without her extensive PR team, Johnny Walker's Walk, as it's known in the deep, deep impenetrably deep South, was one of those watershed events that turned the tide.…

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Added by David Stafford on November 5, 2011 at 5:16pm — 6 Comments

Mensch werden is eine kunst.

Sprung from the head of Zeus! Yet again. Another sterling wunderwerk from Skybridge Studios arrived yesterday. Dressed in an understated gold lame envelope festooned with vintage southwestern stamps, this four panel folding book has kind of a hayseed feeling about it. For one, SB has been pushing the envelope of their printer again: all of the text is printed on thin wafers of wood. I’m guessing mahoghany veneer but I could be dead wrong. Anyhow this rusticity is lightly echoed in the nine…

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Added by David Stafford on November 2, 2011 at 2:50am — 3 Comments

Cheryl Penn's Demons

Well, this is what I get for assuming that Cheryl had wrapped her Desk Set in a mere scrap of paper. I was filing away recent incoming when I unfolded this wonderful and huge drawing / mixed media painting featuring three of the demons that live in the watermarks in my ceiling. A sinister all-purpose trio and by the way, rendered with exactitude based on a few notes I scribbled to Cheryl. How does she do it? I suspect KwaZulu sorcery. Thank you, Cheryl and forgive me for my laxitude (is that…

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Added by David Stafford on October 4, 2011 at 4:18pm — 5 Comments

Important Scientific Discoveries

Marie Wintzer sent me excerpts of the incredibly important work she's been doing on Kanji Puffs from her laboratory in Saitoma, Japan. Believe, dear reader,these are earth-shattering findings that will rock the foundations of Cerealism for years to come. I'll let her letter speak for itself.

 On the back of her missive a handy guide to Nikko where she delivered her paper…

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Added by David Stafford on October 2, 2011 at 6:41pm — 12 Comments

Marie Wintzer Helpful Comic

Marie sent me this characteristically droll and precious book of fragile Japanese ephemera. Inside a delicate wrapping which looks like a catechism or a primer, is a comic book for which Marie has supplied helpful translations.

There's a lot of this going…

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Added by David Stafford on August 1, 2011 at 3:30am — 8 Comments

Diane Keys and the Miraculous Paper Plate

I've spent a lot of time running down our Postal System for a variety of reasons. Now I must take it all it back because of a remarkable thing that arrived last week. Diane Keys of Elgin, Illinois (home of the infamous Elgin Marbles) (hey, when I make a bad joke, I flog that sucka till I can hear the spleens ringing) Anyway, I arrive home from a hard day at the orifice and what did I find?

 …

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Added by David Stafford on August 1, 2011 at 2:04am — 16 Comments

Why I am not an Intellectual

Received this yesterday in my email...

 

 

Tainted Conceptualism: a conversation with Hassan Khan

May 20, 2011

7 p.m., free admission

We assume that moving away from both self-reflexivity and social representation, leads to pure formalism. Hassan Khan confronts this notion through his use of medium, presentation formats, and the creation of partially flawed conceptual systems. Khan will join Sohrab Mohebbi in conversation to consider the play of conceptual…

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Added by David Stafford on May 20, 2011 at 4:10pm — 8 Comments

A Thread Runs Through It

I received the latest volley of creativity from the prolific Cheryl Penn who unlike the lilies toils and spins without end. This particular tomette (not a small tomato, but a small tome) is dedicated to my Aunt Ruth who died a few weeks ago and is all about the ephemeral quality of this lively dust we inhabit. We, who are creating ephemera on a daily basis, much of the time, from ephemera, are ephemera are ourselves and Cheryl, with her winding red thread spells out a Carpe Diem that is…

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Added by David Stafford on April 23, 2011 at 3:58pm — 5 Comments

I leave town for a few days and what happens...

My mailbox is crammed with stuff. Over the past five days I received work (and money!) from Katerina Nikoltsou, Lisa Iversen, Jon Foster x 3, Miguel Jimenez, Angie Cope, Bethany Lee, Laura Podob, Douglas Galloway, Cheryl Penn, Helene Lagache and Jen Staggs. All of the work has been posted in the photos section. Thank you so much, everyone.

Added by David Stafford on February 28, 2011 at 11:53pm — 2 Comments

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